Council of Europe - Venice Commission

KOREA - Public Offical Election Act

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Article 53

(Candidacy of Public Officials, etc.)

(1) Any person who intends to be a candidate and falls under any one of the following subparagraphs, shall resign his/her post 90 days before the
election day: Provided, That the same shall not apply to cases where any National Assembly member runs for the presidential election or the election of the National Assembly members with his/her present post held, and where any local council member or the head of a local government runs in the election of local council members or the head of the local government with his/her present post held:

1. A State public official provided in Article 2 of the State Public Officials Act and a local public official provided in Article 2 of the Local Public Officials Act: Provided, That the same shall not apply to a public official (excluding the one in political service) who is eligible to become a party member as provided in the proviso to Article 22 (1) 1 of the Political Parties Act;

2. A member of the election commission of each level or a member of the educational committee;

3. A person who has the status of a public official as prescribed by other Acts and subordinate statutes;

4. A full-time executive of an institution (including the Bank of Korea), not less than 50/100 shares of which are owned by the Government, from among institutions falling under Article 4 (1) 3 of the Act on the Management of Public Institutions;

5. A full-time executive of the cooperatives established under the Agricultural Cooperatives Act, the Fisheries Cooperatives Act, the Forestry Cooperatives Act, the Tobacco Producers Cooperatives Act, or the chairmen of their central organizations;

6. A full-time executive of a local public corporation or local industrial complex provided in Article 2 of the Local Public Enterprises Act;

7. A private school teacher who is ineligible for a party membership as provided in Article 22 (1) 2 of the Political Parties Act;

8. A journalist as prescribed by Presidential Decree;

9. The representative of an organization (referring to the Society for a Better Tomorrow, the Saemaul Movement Council and the Korea Freedom Federation, and including City/Do organizations and Gu/Si/ Gun organizations) invested or subsidized by the State or local governments as a national movement organization established under Special Acts.

(2) Any person who intends to be a candidate, falling under any one of the following subparagraphs, shall resign his/her post before he/she files an application for the registration of a candidate, notwithstanding the provisions of the main sentence of paragraph (1):

1. When any one runs for the election for proportional representative members of the National Assembly or the election for proportional representative local council members;

2. When any one runs for a special election;

3. When any member of the National Assembly runs for the election for the head of a local government;

4. When any local council member runs for the election for the council member or head of another local government.

(3) When proportional representative members of the National Assembly run for special elections for National Assembly members of local constituency or when proportional representative local council members run for special elections for National Assembly members of local constituency of the relevant local governments, they shall resign their posts before they file an application for the registration of candidates, notwithstanding the provisions of the proviso to paragraph (1).

(4) In the application of paragraphs (1) through (3), the person concerned shall be deemed to have resigned his/her office at the time when the letter of his/her resignation is accepted by the head of the institution to which he/she belongs, or by the committee to which he/she belongs.

(5) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), the head of a local government shall, where he/she intends to run for an election of a National Assembly member for a local constituency which is the same as or overlapping with his/her jurisdictional area, resign from his/her post no later than 120 days before the election day: Provided, That this shall not apply to cases where the head of the relevant local government intends to run for the election for National Assembly members of local constituency, which is held 90 days after the date on which his/her term of office expires, after the expiration of his/her term of office.